Perspective

I don't really have anything to write about at the moment.. I just wanted to share this image..

Funhouse Mirror Eyes?

I've been thinking a lot about how fat I really look. A friend of mine who is into photography pointed me at a number of reasons why we all really do look fatter in photographs, and how, one should never use a poorly taken photo from an awkward angle to take it to mean we look fat to the rest of the world:

"there are several tricks to making the camera your friend: the 2D presentation means that depth is compromised (fotags try to recreate this with backlighting and shadowing) so when you're in front of the camera, keep in mind the phenomenon of ... foreshortening -whatever is closest to the camera looks the biggest (which is why I always stick my hips back and my chest out) This transition to 2D is also why we tend to look 20lbs heavier on film - we basically flatten as dimension is lost. Next, lighting, lighting, lighting - it can make an anorexic look fat and give bone structure to jabba the hut. Sadly, lighting that makes your skin look great (beauty lighting) usually destroys any bone structure if used alone. Posing, as lame as it is, is the best way to mitigate these effects other than post-production efforts. Models do a lot of contorting to highlight certain features, low light others, clean up lines (jaw and muffin tops), so that the image captured appears to have more dimension and movement than it actually does."

That said, I realize that my self-image issues regarding my weight have been there since about puberty and I don't think they are going to go away any time soon.
I spend a fair amount of time trolling the internet for photos of women who are also 5'4 and 175lbs.. I do this to see if they look fat to me (which they seldom do, admittedly).
In one of my more recent explorations into, "Do random women on the interent look fat to me?", I stumbled across a project that an aquaintance of mine has been working on for his amazing website: http://www.cockeyed.com . (link)< It is a photographic height/weight chart using images of real people, most of whom have submitted their own photos in to him.
It reminds me a lot of Fat Acceptance Movement Blogger Kate Harding's own (link) BMI Project.
What these two projects illustrate to me is that height, weight and the appearance of such, can vary dramatically from person to person.
I still haven't figured how fat *I* look to others. I don't know if I ever will.